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[FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.] 



MEMOIR 

ON THE 

EUEOPEAN COLONIZATION OP AMEEICA, 

IN 

ANTE-HISTORIC TIMES, 
By Br. C. A. ADOLPH ZESTERMANN, 

OF LEIPSIC : 
WITH CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS THEREON, 

By E. G. SQUIER, Esq. 

APRIL ; MDCCCLL 



AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

APRIL, 1851. 



The Colonization of America in Anti-Historic Times, by North- 
western Europeans. By Dr. Christian Aug. Adolph Zes- 
termann, of Leipsic. Translated by Prof. W. W. Turner. 

PREFATORY NOTE. 

In the following pages, I venture to present for the consideration of 
Archaeologists and Ethnographers, some views respecting the Colonization 
of America in Ante-Historic Times, by natives of the Northwest of Europe, 
with the request that they may be subjected to a thorough examination. 
Perhaps the attention of scholars will thus be drawn to a subject which 
appears to me of great importance ; and perhaps they may be stimulated 
to the collection of scientific materials, by the use of which the question 
may be brought nearer to a satisfactory solution. This is the chief aim I 
have in view in making public the following memoir, the defects of which 
are sufficiently accounted for by the comparatively limited extent of the 
literary apparatus on which it is based, and are by no means unknown to 
myself. If, notwithstanding, I propound my views with confidence, the 
reason lies in the power exerted over us by a belief in the correctness of 
the results of our investigations, and it will not, I trust, be imputed to pre- 
sumption. I shall consider myself sufficiently rewarded, if men more 
capable will bring the mooted question to a decision. Science requires 
only that truth be promoted ; who it is that promotes it, is a matter of in- 
difference. The Author. 



The striking similarity that exists between the primitive earth-works, 
burial places, and utensils of North America and North Western 
Europe, long ago gave rise to the conjecture that these objects owed 
their origin to the same people. 1 Keferstein, guided by the trust- 
worthy account that Ari Marsson, an Irish Chieftain, was driven in 

1. Keferstein, Ansichten iiber die keltischen Alterthumer, Halle, 1846. 
I. p. 245. 

A 2 



4 



the year 983 on the coast of a country in North America, which was 
then called Hvitra Mannaland, advanced the opinion that these in- 
habitants of the American country, designated as white men, were 
Irish Celts, who, as is shown by the conversion of Florida to Chris- 
tianity, before the arrival of the Icelandic Missionaries, 2 had kept 
up a constant intercourse with Europe. Although we are not yet 
so far advanced in the elucidation of this point, as to be able to specify 
the name of the colonizing people, still the materials which go to 
prove a primitive colonization of America from the North-west of 
Europe, have lately been augmented to such a degree, that doubts of 
the fact are constantly diminishing, and even the period may be 
determined in general terms, before which the colonization must 
have taken place. 

These materials are furnished us in the " Ancient Monuments 
of the Mississippi Valley ; comprising the results of extensive 
Original Surveys and Explorations, by E. G. Squier, A.M.," forming 
Volume I. of the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," 
Washington, 1848. This learned and excellent work shows that, 
extending from the State of New York down the valley of the Ohio 
and Mississippi, to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and onward 
through Mexico and Central America to Peru, and lastly to various 
localities to the east and south of the Alleganies, as also west of the 
Rocky Mountains as far as California, there are found an immense 
number of primitive earth-works, stone-works, and mounds of sepul- 
ture. It then exhibits to us a great number of utensils of stone, 
clay, and metal, taken from the earth- works. And, lastly, we are 
shown a number of skulls, masks, and busts of the ancient inhabitants, 
[f now we compare the drawings and descriptions which the author 
furnishes of the American structures and implements with the antiqui- 
ties of this kind found in North-western Europe, that is to say, in 
the countries bordering on the German Ocean and the Baltic Sea, 
we find in some a complete coincidence, and in others a surprising 
similarity, (at least if we except the elevations of earth in the form 
of animals found in Wisconsin,) but in none a specific difference. 
This it is intended to demonstrate in the following pages, by consi- 
dering in succession the walls and ditches, the mounds and graves, 
and, lastly, the implements of the primitive Americans, as compared 
with those of ancient Europeans, and by showing the affinity they 
bear to each other. We shall speak also of the intercourse of the 
ancient Americans with Europe, and of their physical characteristics ; 
and will close with presenting our views as to the nation to which 
the primitive colonists of America belonged, as also respecting the 
period at which the colonization took place, and the causes that 
produced it. 

2. Antiquitates Americans, sive Scriptores Septentrionales rerum ante 
Columbianarum in America. Sect. 14. 



5 



If all this be accomplished in a limited, and consequently unsatis- 
factory manner, I hope to find my excuse in the defective nature of 
the materials on which my investigations and conclusions are based : 
for here, unhappily, one principal source of the knowledge of former 
times — a literature of those times — is wanting. 

As to the enclosures, some of them surround isolated natural hil- 
locks, while others are carried around the edges of the elevated pe- 
ninsulas formed by the junction of two streams, and resemble the 
fortified places in Germany mentioned by Preusker, 3 Kalina von 
Jathenstein 4 and Keferstein. 5 They consist of a wall 6 combined 
with a ditch, 7 and sometimes of two walls. This last kind of forti- 
fication also has its German counterparts in Grotenburg, near Det- 
mold, in Steinburg, near Romhild, in the duchy of Meinin gen -Hild- 
burghausen, &c. The shape of these enclosures is for the most part 
determined by the nature of the locality, and consequently is very 
various. Where freedom of choice is left, they usually form figures 
with obtuse angles, and resemble the stone walls on the Schaaf berg, 
near Lobau, in the kingdom of Saxony, and the wall near Buck- 
owe tz, in Bohemia. 8 In America, the round and angular enclosures 
are very often found in connexion with long walls.9 It is well 
known that such works are still seen in Germany, 10 and often long- 
walls with ditches (Landwehren) 11 without enclosed works. If 
works of this sort are now less frequently met with in Germany, it 
is probably to be attributed for the most part to the destruction ne- 
cessarily caused by agriculture. 

In America are found a multitude of circular works, consisting of 
a wall with a ditch on the inside ; sometimes one wall includes 
another. 12 A corresponding structure presents itself in the fourfold 
wall in the vicinity of Nienberg, on the Saale, in the duchy of 
Anhalt. 13 Single walls of this kind are seen in Reideburg, near 
Halle, in Sholen, near Liitzen ; and both are found in the province 
of Sachsen, in the kingdom of Prussia. 14 The Reideburg walls 
resemble those of America in so far that they formerly enclosed arti- 
ficial mounds like the circular embankment in Greenup county, 
Kentucky. 15 The hills surrounded by water- trenches, near Skeu- 

3. Preusker, Blicke in die vater- 9. Squier, Am. Mon. PI. XVI. sqq. 
landische Vorzeit, I. p. 107 sqq. II. 10. Keferstein, Ansichten, pp. 116, 
p. 211. sqq. 128, 134. 

4. Kalina v. Jathenstein, Bohmens 11. Preusker, Blicke, I. PI. I., 11. 
heidnische Opferplatze, Graber, und Keferstein, Ansichten, p. 112. 
Altherthumer, p. 135 et ssepe. 12. Squier Anc. Mon. PI. XXV.— 

5. Keferstein, Ansichten iiber kelt- XXVIII. 

sclie Alterthumer, p. 116, 399 et seq. 13. Keferstein, Ansichten, p. 4. 

6. Squier, Anc. Monuments of the 14. Keferstein, Ansichten, p. 20. 
M. Valley, PI. V— IX. 15. Squier, Anc. Mon. PI. XXVI.— 

7. Squier, Anc. Mon., PI. XI. XXVIII. and Fig-. 19. 

8. Preusker, Blicke, I. PI. 1, 13a, 
and 16. 



6 



ditz, in the province of Sachsen, kingdom of Prussia, may also be 
likened to the American circular structures, — Lastly, there are found 
in America many semi-circular embankments with a ditch on the 
inside. 16 They resemble the earth- works known in Germany by 
the name of Pagan Forts (Heidenschanzen), and are of very frequent 
occurrence ; they differ from the latter, however, in having no arti- 
ficially or naturally elevated base, but rise above the surrounding 
plain only to the height of the embankment. Mounds in the form 
of the Heidenschanzen have not yet been found in America. 

Along with the largei circles there occur in America a multitude 
of small circles formed of low embankments. 11 They are regarded as 
the foundations of dwellings of the people who constructed the 
earth works, and by some, less correctly, as the bases of unfinished 
mounds — a supposition which is contradicted by their number and 
the regularity of their forms. These circles have their counterparts 
in the circular hollows surrounded by low walls of earth, frequently 
met with in the basin of the Baltic arid German Ocean, usually from 
ten to twelve feet, and sometimes one hundred feet in diameter, and 
from three to four feet deep, which are supposed to be the founda- 
tions of dwellings such as the natives of Eastern Siberia still make 
use of in the winter. They are met with in many parts of Germany, 
France, and England ; and are called in France, mardelles or mar- 
gelles, and in England, pen-pits. 18 

We pass over the other American earth -works in the form of 
animals, described by Squier as existing in Wisconsin ; becausen one 
like them are found in Europe. 

The material of which these embankments are constructed is taken 
for the most part from the surface of the ground on which they 
stand ; accordingly it consists chiefly of earth, but sometimes also of 
stone in masses of various size. 

The artificial mounds occurring in America, as well as those in 
Europe, are found to have been erected, some as look-outs or watch- 
posts, *9 and some as sepulchral tumuli. The watch-posts are mounds 
thrown up singly on elevated points and also in the midst of en- 
closures ; in both hemispheres they contain nothing peculiar, and 
from their nature are of course very similar. It is otherwise with 
the mounds of sepulture ; on the peculiar construction of which the 
religion, manners, and customs of the people must necessarily have 
exercised a great influence. Hence while the agreement in the form 
and position of the mounds of observation in different countries is a 
matter of no importance, the similarity and even identity of the 



1G. Squier, Anc. Mon. PI. XXXIV. 18. Keferstein, Ansichten, pp. 51, 

et ssepe. 134, 148, 192, sqq. 208. 

17. Squier, Anc. Mon. PI. XVI. and 19. Squier, Anc. Monum, Chap. 

XXIV. VI., sqq. 



7 



burial-mounds of different countries, naturally leads us to infer the 
similarity or identity of the builders of these tombs. 

The burial-mounds of America are of two kinds. The first kind 
contain a skeleton on a level with the base of the mound, placed 
usually in the middle of it, either on a layer of bark or on mats in 
the naked earth, or in a square chest formed of unhewn logs or of 
stones, laid one above the other. These mounds consist of earth 
taken from the vicinity of the place where they are erected, some of 
them being based on a course of stone, and others being covered with 
a layer of gravel. They bear the most unmistakeable similarity to the 
barrows of the Orkney islands, 20 in which the skeletons are likewise 
deposited in chests ; and to the graves of Germany, in which, as at 
Nienburg on the Saale in the dutchy of Anhalt, stone chambers are 
found. 

The second kind of burial-mounds contain in the centre, and 
resting on the original surface of the ground, a hollowed, trough- 
shaped hearth of clay or stones of various dimensions and height. In 
these mounds are found urns with the remains of burnt corpses. 21 
These burial-mounds likewise consist of the earth of the vicinity, but 
are so constructed that two or three layers of sand half-an-inch thick 
alternate w T ith thick layers of earth, and the surface is covered with 
a coating of gravel. Mounds of sepulture of this kind are also found 
in Europe, with perhaps the sole exception of the layers of sand, 
which have not to my knowledge been met with. In Altranstadt, 
in the province of Sachsen, Kingdom of Prussia, a tumulus of this 
kind was dug open in the year 1849. It consisted of earth from the 
vicinity, had resting on the original surface a hearth of clay, which 
material is not found in the neighbourhood, and consequently must 
have been brought from a distance ; and, concealed about a foot be- 
low the surface, an urn of excellent workmanship, a glass with a 
long foot, the remains of a knife and of a comb, and the ashes of the 
dead. 

These sepulchral tumuli are sometimes placed so close together 
that two circular mounds have become a single egg-shaped one, in 
which case there is, perhaps, a union of one mound with another more 
ancient,. 22 This combination of two or more mounds into one 
is also met with in Europe. 23 The height of these mounds varies in 
America as in Europe from five to fifty feet and over, although 
usually as in Europe they do not exceed from twelve to sixteen feet. 

The mound builders of America observed the same custom as those 
of Europe in the burial of their dead ; they placed in the grave along* 



20. Bilderatlas zum Conversations- 
Lexikon, Abtheil. VII. PI- 203, Text, 
p. 82. Comp. Squier, Anc. Mon. p. 
162, Fig- 50 and 51 ; and p. 169, 
Fig-. 55. 



21. Squier, Anc. Mon. p. 143, sqq. 

22. Squier, Anc. Mon. pp. 149, 155, 
178. 

23. Bilderatlas zum Conversations- 
Lexikon. VII. Abtliiel, Text, p. 81. 



8 



with the corpse his weapons, utensils, and ornaments in great pro- 
fusion ; and the treasures of our museums consist for the most part 
of the spoils obtained by the opening of these ancient tombs. 

After what has been said it will scarcely be disputed that the 
ancient earthworks of America and Europe exhibit the closest simi- 
arity, and in most cases even a positive identity. An equally re- 
markable identity is displayed by the utensils which have been taken 
from the ancient graves of both Continents ; I mean the urns, the 
implements of stone and metal, and the articles of ornament. From 
New York to Peru, as well as on the shores of the Baltic and of the 
German Ocean, there are found in the graves a great number of urns 
and fragments of urns. The ancient pottery of Europe is essentially 
distinguished from that of modern times by the fact that the clay is 
mixed with pretty coarse sand and mica. The older they are, the 
less thoroughly the clay is worked, and the thicker are the walls of 
the vessel. On the outside they are usually coloured with black-lead, 
or they have their natural colour and are decorated with lines which 
form a pattern. The lines are cut into the soft clay as with a knife. 
Frequently, raised or sunken ornaments are observed. 24 The forms 
of the vessel are very various, and fluctuate between the shape of a 
flat saucer, and that of a flask. 25 The American pottery is likewise 
made of clay, quartz-sand, and mica, 26 and accordingly differs in like 
manner from modern pottery, while on the other hand it frequently 
agrees in material with the ancient vessels of the basin of the Baltic 
and the German Ocean. 

Great diversity is to be expected in the shaping of a soft mass like 
clay, which leaves so free a scope to the whims of the artificer ; 
nevertheless, the forms of the European vases, as exhibited in our 
museums, 27 and those of the American as portrayed by Squier, 
Ancient Monuments, Plate XL VI. and pp. 191, 192, are evidently of 
the same character. 

The implements found in the American graves agree in form, and 
partly also in material, with those found in Northern Europe, in a 
manner so striking, that it can hardly be owing to mere chance, 
The arrow and spear heads of Europe and America differ not at all, 
or very slightly, and consist, here as well as there, of the sharp-edged 
stones furnished by the country — flint, quartz, and obsidian. 28 The 
American stone daggers differ from the European only in so far as 



24. Klemm, Handbuch, der ger- 
manischen Alterthumskunde, § 51 . 

25. Klemm, german. Alterthums- 
kunde, PI. viii. 

26. Squier, Anc. Monum. p. 188, at 
the bottom. 

27. Klemm, german. Alterthums- 
kunde, PL 12. Kalina v. Juthen- 



stein, Bohmens heidn. Opferplatze. 
PL xxv. sqq. and elsewhere. 

28. Squier, Anc. Mon. p. 212. Comp. 
Preusker, Blicke, i. PL 2. Worsaae. 
Danemarks Vorzeit, p. 14. Leitfaden 
zur nordischen Alterthumskunde, p. 
36, sqq. 



9 



they seem intended to receive a wood or bone handle, whereas in 
ours the handle is formed of the same piece of stone. 2 9 The knives 
of flint and obsidian found in Europe and Americ , are perfectly 
identical, as is shown in the u Ancient Monuments," p. 215. More- 
over, the wedge shaped knives, 30 i.e., the implements which have 
hitherto gone by the name of imperforated wedges or hand-axes, and, 
when only an inch and a-half or two inches long, by that of amulets, 
are so completely alike in America and Europe, that one is tempted 
to believe that the representations in the " Ancient Monuments," p. 
215, sqq. were prepared from European originals. The American 
stone axes also present, unmistakably, the same character as the 
European, although their form is somewhat more artistic. Still that 
portrayed in the il Ancient Monuments," p.* 218, Fig. 114. No. 5, 
resembles one depicted by Worsaae, p. 12 ; and that in the " Ancient 
Monuments," Fig. 1 14, No. 6, is not unlike one in the collection of 
the German Society of Leipsic. 

The enigmatical stones with a hole in the centre, found in 
Scandinavia, 31 are also met with in the graves of America. 

In America, also, as in Europe, bones and horns are fashioned 
into implements, the uses of which are readily suggested by the form 
and nature of the materials. 

Along with the stone utensils are found implements of copper. Of 
these some are mere imitations of the stone implements, such as the 
wedge-shaped knives 33 and the lance points. 34 The resemblance 
which a copper knife found in America 35 bears to a bronze knife in 
Bohemia, 36 appears to be accidental. 

Lastly, among the articles from the graves are to be mentioned 
copper armlets, which have precisely the form of some found 
in Europe, and accordingly indicate a common taste in the shape of 
ornaments. 37 



29. Squier, Anc. Mon. p. 211. 
Worsaae, p. 12. Klemm, german. 
Alterthumskunde. PI. x. 

30. In a lecture before the German 
Society of Leipsic, I have shown that 
these implements are knives, a fact of 
which any one can convince himself 
by grasping one with his whole hand, 
or, if it be a small one, by taking it 
between the three first fingers in such 
a manner that the forefinger will lie 
over the back of the knife. That 
corner of the edge which is most rub- 
bed down must be turned towards the 
wrist. By using a little strength, pa- 
tience, and dexterity, one can suc- 
ceed, as I have done, in cutting even 
leather, especially if laid on a stone. 
When the edge becomes dull, it can 



be sharpened again by grinding on 
stones, which are also found in the 
graves of Germany. 

31. Leitfaden zur nord. Alterthum- 
skunde, p. 39, 13. 

32. Squier, Anc. Monum, p. 221. 

33. Squier, Anc. Monum, p. 197. 

34. Squier, Anc. Monum. p. 201. 
Fig. 86, 1 ; comp. p. 212. Fig. 103, 
2.3. 4. 6 ; and p. 201. Fig, 87, 1.2; 
comp. p. 211. Fig. 99. 

35. Squier, Anc. Mon, p. 201. Fig. 
86, 2. 

36. Kalina v. Juthenstein, Bohmens 
heidn. Opferplatze, PI. vi. 3. 

37. Squier, Anc. Mon. p. 204 ; comp. 
Klemm, german. Alterthumskunde, 
PI. iv. 



10 



The undeniable coincidence in the cases above enumerated, 
naturally leads us to inquire into the causes of this coincidence. 
Were these objects of such a kind that their form must necessarily be 
determined by the common nature of man, the coincidence would 
not surprise us. But the specific forms of the earthworks, the mode 
of burying the dead, the composition and workmanship of the 
pottery, the manner of shaping stone into implements, all point to 
an individual cultivation of a portion of the human race ; an indica- 
tion which is strengthened by the fact that we meet with the traces 
of this cultivation only in a line which, starting from the north-east 
of Asia, passes through Central Europe in a South Westerly direction, 
recommences in North America, and continuing from there through 
Central America to Peru, appears to reach its termination in the 
South Sea Islands. For we find in Southern Siberia, in Asia 
Minor, and in the steppes of Southern Russia in Europe, in Central 
Europe, between the Alps and Pyrenees on the one hand, and the 
Frigid Zone on the other, and in America, in the localities pointed 
out by Mr. Squier, earthworks and graves of the same cha- 
racter and essentially the same contents, only with this remarkable 
difference, that both form and contents manifest a constant improve- 
ment in proportion as we advance towards the West. To the 
Siberian mounds are joined in Europe earthen enclosures ; the 
irregular embankments of Europe are converted in America into 
regular forms ; and the round tumuli of North America become 
regular terraced structures in the South and in Mexico, and receive 
their highest development in the Mexican teocalli. The rude orna- 
ments of the European barrows, consisting of earthenware beads and 
the teeth of wild beasts, are exchanged in America for polished stones 
of regular shape ; and the ruder forms of the vases receive their 
finest development in Peru. These phenomena, in my opinion, point 
to an intimate internal connexion, for which I can find no other ex- 
planation than a gradual migration of a portion of the human family 
from one part of the world to another — from one hemisphere to the 
other. In short, I see in it a colonization of America, by means of 
an immigration from Europe. 

This supposition is further strengthened by the consideration that 
a mutual intercourse between America and Europe must have existed 
in the primitive times. In Osnabruck, in the Kingdom of Hanover, 
and in the Dutchy of Holstein, there have been found, in certain 
mounds of sepulture, urns, battle-axes, flint knives, and small clay 
pipes. These are five or six inches in length, and ornamented ; the 
orifice is cut off obliquely, and bears evident marks of having been 
smoked from. 38 The American graves are also very frequently found 

38. Wachter, in the Hanoversche Magazin for 1841. Art. 26, p. 675. Art. 
27, p. 685. 



11 



to contain pipes of clay and stone ; the clay pipes seem to possess the 
primitive forms of our small clay pipes, and to be entirely similar to 
those found in Hanover and Holstein. 39 It necessarily follows from 
this, that the practice of smoking belonged to the people who con- 
structed the graves in America ; but it is also equally indisputable, 
that men who smoked were buried in Europe. That the custom of 
smoking was not common to all the Europeans to whom the graves 
owe their origin, is evident from the fact that in but comparatively 
few graves have pipes been found. It is, therefore, to be presumed 
that in such graves either strangers were buried, or men who had 
had intercourse with strangers, and that consequently the practice of 
smoking was introduced from abroad. This practice can be shown 
to have existed first of all in China and America ; and from one or 
the other of those countries it must have been brought, in the ancient 
time, to Europe. When we reflect that in the graves of the eastern 
parts as also in the interior of Europe no pipes are found, and that 
they occur only in the countries bordering on the German Ocean, 
we can hardly doubt that smoking must have been introduced into 
Europe by means of intercourse with America. It may be objected 
that Europeans may have taken to smoking of their own accord, as 
well as Americans. But in that case it would be necessary to assume 
that there existed in the vegetable productions or in the nature of 
the country a special incitement thereto ; and supposing this incite- 
ment to have continued, it is perfectly inexplicable that a habit which 
is not acquired in the first place without considerable effort, and is 
afterwards very difficult to lay aside, should have so completely dis- 
appeared as to be introduced again, as entirely new, after the discovery 
of America by Columbus. Since then, the practice of smoking was 
not unknown to the people who buried implements of stone along 
with their dead, it can scarcely be denied that an intercourse with 
America must have existed in those primitive times. 

The supposition of an intercourse between America and Europe, 
appears also to receive confirmation from the fact that figures of 
American palm-leaves have been found on some dolmens at Lok- 
mariaker in Brittany. 40 A support for the opinion that America 
was known to the ancients, has been sought in the Atlantis of Plato 
and Strabo, Atlantis 41 being supposed to be America. But whoever 
accurately examines the passages referred to in the writings of the 
ancients, will find, that from these fabulous materials, which no 
doubt owe their origin to various misunderstood accounts of dis- 
coveries lying nearer home, it is impossible to deduce a historical 
foundation for the belief that the Greeks were acquainted with 



39. Squier, Anc. Mon, p. 194. Fig-. Antiq. a Copenhague, xvii. p. 19, In- 
80, troduction. 

40. Memoires de la Sociele des 41. Platon. Tim. 24. Strabo ii. 102. 



12 



America. After stripping off all that bears a fictitious character 
from these relations, what is left will hardly lead us further than the 
western coast of Africa and the adjacent islands. 

If, now, the facts we have discussed compel us to the conclusion 
that at an unknown epoch of the past an emigration must have taken 
place from Europe to America, the questions inevitably present 
themselves, — Who were this emigrating people ? When did the 
emigration take place ? What were their means for passing from 
one continent to the other ? And what induced them to do so ? 

Unfortunately we possess not a fragment of literary evidence to 
aid us in answering these questions ; for hitherto no written cha- 
racters have been discovered in the graves of America. But we 
have a few skulls of the mound-builders, and representations of their 
heads on stone pipes, masks, and reliefs, from which conclusions may 
be drawn as to the race to which the people belonged ; and we still 
find traditions and remains of populations in America which confirm 
these conclusions. 

Mr. Squier gives us, in the 'Ancient Monuments," in Plate XL VII. 
a side view, and in PlateXL VIII. a front and vertical view, of a skull 
found in an ancient American grave. It has a tolerably high forehead, 
an aquiline nasal bone, a tolerably high upper jaw with strong teeth, 
and cheek bones which, as compared with the vertex, have only that 
degree of prominence which is customary in Caucasian crania. A 
Caucasian skull, which was taken from an ancient grave at Altran- 
stadt, in the province of Sachsen, kingdom of Prussia, agrees in its 
proportions with the American skull, excepting that it has a very 
inconsiderably larger facial angle. 

These proportions lead to the conclusion that the American skull, 
when living and clothed with flesh, had a prominent aquiline nose 
and a broad upper lip, and that its cheeks could not have been 
strikingly prominent. Dr. Morton, in his "Crania Americana," 
Philadelphia, 1839, has described this skull ; and he states with 
respect to the ancient American skulls in general, that they are 
larger than those of the present Indians, and that they have a greater 
vertical and frontal diameter, a greater facial angle, and a greater 
internal capacity (from 85 to 90 cubic inches). When we consider 
that the Caucasian race has taken on an average, a lofty cranium, a 
prominent and high forehead (oval-shaped face), a prominent nose, 
moderate-sized cheek bones, a high upper jaw, and a mean internal 
capacity of 87 cubic inches, and that the American race has in ge- 
neral a low and strongly receding forehead, a stumpy nose, very 
prominent cheek-bones, a rather broad face, and a mean internal 
capacity of 82 cubic inches, we can hardly be deceived in attributing 
this skull to the Caucasian rather than the American race. The 
learned Dr. Morton, it is true, has ascribed it to the Toltecan family; 
to those skulls it approaches the nearest, among the present Amen- 



13 



can tribes — but be was perhaps led to do so only because this previous 
appearance of the Caucasians in America seemed to him impossible. 

This same Caucasian feature which we were obliged to assume in 
the skull just described, and presented to us again in quite a striking 
manner on the pipe-heads pictured in " Ancient Monuments," p. 
245, etc., and in the masks delineated in the same work pp. 250, 251* 
We behold in them the oval style of face, the lofty forehead, the 
regular, somewhat sharp and prominent nose, the straight-set eyes, 
and high upper lip ; but the low forehead, the long and narrow eyes 
inclined upward in an oblique direction, the prominent cheek-bones, 
the stumpy nose, the broad face, and the retreating frontal bone of 
the American race, as described to us by ethnologists, we cannot 
find. The same cast of features differing from that of the present 
Americans was found by Alexander von Humboldt, 42 in the earthen 
masks discovered among the wild Indians on the Mosquito Coast, in 
the effigies of the palace of Mitla, at Oaxaca, in New Spain, on the 
reliefs at Palenque in Chiapas, and in the Aztec paintings. 

We find ourselves compelled by these testimonies to regard the 
people who constructed the mounds, and who were doubtless not less 
accurate in their representations of themselves than we see them to 
have been in those of animals, as belonging to the Caucasian race. 
And in fact this conclusion is further strengthened by evident traces 
that present themselves of a white population in America before the 
arrival of the Northmen. 

Ari Marsson, in the year 983, was driven on the shores of an 
American country, to which he gives the names of Hvitra manna 
land, White Men's Land, and Irland it Mikla, or Great Ireland. 43 
The former name shows that the inhabitants of that country had 
white skins, and the latter that they came from Ireland. Even if 
this account cannot go to prove that the people here mentioned be- 
longed to the primitive colony which I have assumed, because, at 
the remote period fixed upon by me, the name Ireland (if it be not 
perhaps a translation by Ari Marsson of another name of the same 
island), can hardly have existed, still it shows that numerous emigra- 
tions from Europe to America may have taken place before that of 
the Northmen. 

Of more importance, however, are the traditions and belief of the 
Mexicans and Peruvians, which lead us to infer an immigration of 
white men. Such traditions which have become an integral part of 
the popular belief, always point to a fact as the source from which 
they have sprung. Remarkable in this respect is the belief of the 
ancient Mexicans, that the God of the air, Quetzalcoatl, a being of 

42. A. v. Humboldt, Anischten der 43, Antiquitates Americana?, vi. 
Natur, im Auszuge. Morgenblatt, 
1849. No. 248, p. 901. 



14 



lofty stature, with a white skin, k>fcg dark hair, and a flowing beard, 
in consequence of the enmity of a higher God, took leave of his 
followers on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, on which he em- 
barked, promising to revisit them along with his descendants, and 
resume his kingdom. 44 The germ of this tradition is doubtless that 
a white man, who by reason of his superior qualifications attained to 
royal rank among the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, was compelled 
to yield to one more powerful than himself, and withdrew to the 
eastern home of his race, where he could most naturally hope for 
assistance to re-conquer his kingdom. It is impossible that so exact 
and detailed a picture could be drawn of a being by those who had 
never beheld one of a similar kind. Now, a white skin and a flow- 
ing beard are so entirely foreign to the American tribes of the present 
day, that they certainly would never have imagined a being possess- 
ing these characteristics had they not seen men who bore them. 
Moreover, Montezuma, the last King of the Atzecs, who claimed a 
descent from Quetzalcoatl, is known to have been of a lighter color 
than the other Mexicans. 43 That in several parts of America there 
existed a white population before Columbus, has been proved by 
Aubin in the most convincing manner by extracts from ancient 
writings in Mexico, transmitted by him to the Royal Society for 
Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen. 46 A tradition was also cur- 
rent in Peru, that white, bearded men had come to that country a 
long while ago, and diffused civilization. The nobility of Peru, the 
Incas, passed for children of the Sun, by which was no doubt meant 
the East ; they had a higher, more prominent forehead, 47 and a 
whiter skin than the other Peruvians. Even in recent times the 
lighter-colored race was not yet quite extinct. Thus Marchand found 
on the Northwest Coast of America, between the 54th and 58th 
degrees of latitude, people with large eyes and a light complexion, 
whom Alex, von Humboldt supposed to be descended from the 
Usiim, an Alano-gothic race, 48 i. e., Caucasian stock. It appears 
that even among the Mexicans, at the period of the Spanish con- 
quest, the Caucasian type had not been quite obliterated ; for one of 
the ambassadors sent by Montezuma to Cortes, so resembled that 
European, that he was called by the Spaniards, cc the Mexican 
Cortes." 4 9 

After what has been presented, it seems beyond a doubt that in 



44. Prescott, History of the Con- 
quest of Mexico, I., p. 60, 312 sq. 

45. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, 
I., p. 74. 

46. Die Konigl.Gesellschaftfur nord. 
Altenthumsforschung Jahresversamm- 
lung, 1840, p. 2, line 22nd from the 
bottom, and p. 8. 



47. Prescott, Conquest of Peru, I. 
p. 10; also p. 8, 39. 

48. A. v. Humboldt, Ansichten der 
Natur, im Auszuge. Morgenblatt, 
1849, No. 248, p. 991. 

49. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, 
I. p. 319. 



15 



primitive times Caucasians emigrated into America, and there called 
forth a civilization, which was afterwards destroyed, either by a 
rising against them on the part of the aborigines, or by a later bar- 
barian immigration, perhaps from the North-west, and proceeding 
from Asia, just as it fared with the high, and until recently, unknown 
civilization on the upper Euphrates and Tigris, with the civilization 
of the ancient Egyptians, and with that of the Greeks and Romans. 
For, even supposing that Caucasian immigrants extended their in- 
fluence by degrees from New York to Peru, and founded flourishing 
and peaceful kingdoms, in which a commerce was carried on that 
reached from the plateaus of Mexico and the shores of the Mexican 
Gulf to the Alleghany Mountains, as is evinced by the obsidian and 
the sea-shells which are frequently discovered in the graves of the 
Northern Union, 50 still we could hardly be justified in concluding 
that America was uninhabited before their arrival. On the con- 
trary, several of the pipe-heads figured by Squier in the " Ancient 
Monuments," as in p. 244 Fig. 143, and p. 219, Fig. 149, appear to 
me to represent the features of the Aborigines, over whom the Cau- 
casians ruled for a time, and by whom, as the least numerous race, 
and after becoming gradually enervated, they were in turn subdued 
and partially annihilated. At all events, the disappearance of the 
Caucasians argues nothing against their former existence, even if the 
instances above adduced of remnants of a European population, pro- 
bably somewhat changed by intermixture, be not regarded as valid. 
How many nations can be proved historically to have lived, who yet 
have vanished without leaving a trace behind them ! Where are the 
Vandals, before whom Rome trembled? Where are the Goths, who 
gave laws to half a continent ? Where are the Franks, who founded 
kingdoms still existing? Where are the Caribs? Where the Red- 
skins who but a few centuries ago filled with terror the European 
colonists on this side the Alleghanies? It seems ordained by des- 
tiny that one race of mankind should supplant another ; and who can 
assure us that the high civilization of the Caucasians of the present 
day will not, sooner or later, be trampled under foot by barbarian 
hordes? 

If then we may regard the fact of the colonization of America by 
Europeans as established, our next inquiries are involuntarily directed 
to the possibility, the period, and the occasion of so far-reaching an 
undertaking. 

The abundant appliances by the aid of which our navigation is 
now conducted, cause us to regard it as impossible that a people who 
had no knowledge of the compass, whose vessels were small and of 
frail construction, and who were destitute of the nautical science of 
modern times, could undertake such distant and perilous voyages. 



50. Squier, Anc Mon, Chap. XIX. 



16 



But it is well known that the ancient navigators directed their course 
with great skilfulness by the stars, and that they took with them 
ravens and other land birds, which, when they had lost their way or 
were in search of land, were let fly, and thus served as guides. These 
were the compasses of the bold sea-farers. But was it necessary that 
they should sail in a straight line from Ireland or Norway to America? 
May they not, like the Northmen, have sailed from one island to 
another of the Northern Ocean, until at length, perhaps, after decades 
of years, they found the way to America as the Northman did in 
later times ? Can it be correctly maintained that to the ancient 
people that was impossible which was possible to the Northmen, as 
is shown by the accounts of their sea adventures, and furthermore by 
their structures in America ? 51 Can it be doubted that an evidently 
more cultivated people, like the makers of the stone weapons, could 
as easily reach America as the Esquimaux of the American Polar 
region, who are now acknowledged to belong to the same race with 
the Laplanders of the Polar regions of Europe? The fact of the 
immigration may be received as a sufficient proof of its possibility. 
The ashes which Hecla sends from time to time to the Faroe isles, 
the drift-wood and other things which the sea brings from the west 
to Europe, were the messengers that called the ancient colonists to 
America ; distress at home gave the impulse that caused these mes- 
sengers to be obeyed ; and skill, courage, and perseverance, were the 
guides that brought them to its shores. 

It is far less difficult to show the possibility of reaching America, 
than it is to determine the period at which colonization began. We 
can only say, that it must have taken place before the introduction of 
bronze into North-western Europe. 

Many utensils of copper have been discovered in the American 
graves, but not a single one of bronze. This copper was worked in 
a cold state, as is shown by pieces of metal found about the works of 
the North-west Mining Company. 52 It is very evident from an ex- 
amination of these masses, that portions have been separated from 
them for the purpose of being worked up. Bronze, however, is so 
much superior to pure copper in hardness and brilliancy, that no one 
after using it would return to the latter. Hence we may conclude 
with certainty that the people who emigrated from Europe to Ame- 
rica, must have left their homes before bronze was known there. 
Had such not been the case, bronze would have been transplanted 
along with them to America. — This conclusion is also strengthened 
by the fact that the American copper implements are imitations, not 
of the bronze implements of Europe, but of those of stone. 

51. Die konigl. Gesellschaft fur sentation of the Norman Baptistery in 
nordische Alterthumsforschung Jah- America. 

resversammlung, 1840; with a repre- 52. Squier, Anc. Mon., p. 202 sq., 

and p. 279, at bottom. 



17 



The question now arises — When did bronze become known in 
North-western Europe ? This, also, cannot be answered with cer- 
tainty. Only thus much we know : the arms of Theseus were of 
bronze ; the armour, weapons, axes, and knives of the heroes of the 
Trojan War were of bronze ; 54 the anchors of the Hegelingen were 
of bronze ; 55 and the weapons of the Teutones, who, in the year 113 
before Christ, made their appearance in the Roman territory, were 
likewise of bronze. 56 — Hence we see that bronze was already known 
in North-western Europe 2,000 years ago. But we may assume 
that it became known there at least 1,100 years earlier, by means of 
the Phoenicians. It is true that the first voyages of the Phoenicians 
through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Amber Coast are commonly 
placed in the year 1,100 before Christ ; but they must have procured 
amber already for some considerable time before the Trojan War, 
which is placed, according to the lowest computation, in the year 
1 1 84 before Christ ; for in the heroic age of the Greeks, amber was 
one of the most favorite materials for ornamenting apartments ; 57 and 
the Phoenicians already manufactured of gold and amber the splendid 
chains that charmed the Grecian women. 58 Accordingly, at the 
period of the Trojan War, a great deal of amber must already have 
been brought from the Amber Coast. Now, the trade of those days, 
as is always the case with rude nations, was one of barter. Without 
doubt they offered to the inhabitants of the North such articles as 
they most coveted ; among which, weapons, especially if made of 
bronze, and glittering like gold, would be sure to hold the highest 
rank. We may therefore assume with certainty, that many of the 
bronze weapons of classical origin, which were afterwards found in 
the countries bordering on the German Ocean and the Baltic Sea, 5 ^ 
were bought and sold there as early as 1,200 years before our era. 
The acquaintance, then, of the inhabitants of the coasts of the Ger- 
man Ocean and the Baltic with bronze, cannot be fixed at a lower 
date than the year 1200 before Christ. 

_ But it is still more probable that even before this period the inha- 
bitants of modern Germany, France, and of the countries of Western 
Europe bordering on the Ocean, as far North as the Polar Zone, 
were acquainted with bronze. Many things go to show that among 
the Altai Mountains, so rich in metals, the first bronze was made, 



53. Plutarch. Theseus, c. 36. 

54. Homeri Iliad. VI. 199. 318. 
321. IV. 326. XI. 640. XIII. 439, 
sq. 612, 650, 662. Odyss. VIII., 403. 
XII., 173. XV., 418, etseq. 

55. Kutrun, I., 109, (4,426— 4,456 ) 

56. Virgilii Mn. vii., 743—745. 

57. Homeri Odyss. iv., 73. 

58- Homeri Odyss. xv., 459 (460). 



59. Bulletin de l'Academie roy. de 
Belgique. Vol. xiv. Part 2, p. 268, 2, 
and the Plate belonging- to it, Fig. 17 ; 
comp, E. Gerhard's Denkmaler und 
Forschungen, PI. xii. Also Worsaae, 
Danemarks Vorzeit, p. 24, a sword of 
bronze ; comp. E. Gerhard's Denk~ 
maler Forsch. 1849, PL h\, Fig. 2. 

B 



18 



and that from there it was brought with the migrating nations to the 
West. For there, in the earliest times, the most extensive mining 
operations were carried on ; and in the graves and abandoned works 
of that region, utensils of the most varied description have been 
found made of the finest hardened bronze. 60 From there this bronze, 
together with the other products of the Siberian mines (beryllus, 
amaragdus Scythicus, &c.,) was carried westward along with the 
people as they migrated to Europe. The Massagetae, who, according 
to Jacob Grimm (Geschihte der Deutschen Sprache), are identical with 
the Goths, who afterwards made their appearance on the Danube, 
had corselets, lances, arrows, and battle-axes of bronze. 61 In various 
parts of Germany, widely separated from each other, utensils for 
casting articles of bronze have been discovered. 62 If now we con- 
sider that the population of Northern and Central Europe immigrated 
to the North of the Caucasus from those regions in which bronze 
was first produced, or from countries situated very near the place of 
its production, we will find it more reasonable to assume that the 
bronze-workers of Central Germany brought their art with them at 
the period of the immigration of their people, than that they learnt 
it from the Phoenicians, who can hardly have penetrated beyond the 
coast to any distance into the interior of the country, or from the 
Romans, who had iron weapons long before the days of Marius and 
Julius Caesar. This supposition receives confirmation from the fact 
that the mysterious implement called a " celt," " hache gauloise," 
"palstaff," battle-chisel," etc., 63 is found chiefly in the countries of 
Central and Northern Europe ; for which reason it is plainly to be 
regarded as a production peculiar to those regions, and consequently 
as evidence of a native, original branch of industry. 64 That along 
with these native productions in bronze, more finely wrought articles 
in the same metal, of classical origin, should have been introduced, 
as we have assumed above, need appear no more surprising than the 
fact that a good deal of English cutlery is now sold in Germany 
along with the many useful articles of native manufacture. In the 



60. Ritter, Erdkunde, Vol iii. 

61. Herodot. i., 215. 

62. Smelting- pots with molten 
bronze and lumps of the same metal, 
and even entire foundries with moulds 
and the articles cast in them , have been 
discovered at Demmin in Mecklenburg, 
Gross Jena in Thuringen, Braunfels in 
Hessen, and Zurich in Switzerland. 
Keferstein, Ansichten, iiber die Kel- 
tischen Alterthiimer, i. 482. 

63. In a paper read before the Ger- 
man Society of Leipsic, I have shown 
that as these implements are by no 



means of a suitable form for weapons, 
and cannot be supposed to have been 
used as such, along with the lances 
and swords of bronze, and as we can 
show no other agricultural implement 
of the ancient inhabitants of Germany, 
they must have been designed for till- 
ing the soil, and were in fact a sort of 
spade. 

64. I find the same opinion ex- 
pressed in the Leitfaden zur nord. 
Alterthumsk. Copenhagen, 1837. p. 
69. 



19 



absence then of any weighty argument to the contrary, we are justi- 
fied in assuming that long before the arrival of the Phoenicians, the 
dwellers about the German Ocean and the Baltic were acquainted 
with bronze. Accordingly the immigration of the people to whom 
bronze was as yet unknown, must be referred back to an indefinite 
period, reaching at least to over 1,200 years before the birth of 
Christ. 

Respecting the cause which produced this emigration to America, 
I have but a few conjectures to offer, and to these no great value will 
probably be attached. It can scarcely be doubted that a people who 
in both hemispheres successively raised such prodigious earthworks, 
cannot have been in Europe a mere pastoral, hunting, or fishing 
people, but must have been, as they afterwards were in America, 65 a 
population who practiced the art of agriculture. Such works can be 
erected only during a long continued abode in the place where they 
are situated ; and the motive for erecting them must have been the 
protection of territory which it would have been a severe loss to 
resign. Consequently, the builders of these works must have been 
agriculturists. But a people who practice the art of agriculture do 
not quit their home without a pressing necessity, least of all by the 
tedious and perilous route of the ocean. 

This necessity cannot have been produced by any accidents of the 
elements ; for man braves the elements on land with great endurance, 
and least of all would he betake himself to the sea in order to escape 
from storms or floods, which only partially assail the land. Revolu- 
tions of the earth, since the construction of the graves in Central 
Europe, have certainly not taken place. It is, therefore, only a war 
with a people pressing upon them that can have produced the 
necessity for emigrating to America. Perhaps, we would not err, 
were we assume that the people with bronze weapons, as the superior 
one, conquered the people with stone weapons, and forced them to 
emigrate. We may form some idea of how this took place, if we 
assume that the Aborigines were gradually driven by their enemies 
from the Continent to the British Islands, and from there to the 
smaller islands, constantly further to the West ; and that probably, 
only the more powerful and wealthy of the Aborigines, together 
with their followers, retreated and emigrated rather than become the 
vassals of the new comers. After the expulsion of the princes, the 
new comers took possession of the land and of those subjects of the 
expelled who had not emigrated ; while those who had thus been 
driven from their former homes, got for themselves a new country 
and new subjects in America. We would thus have an explanation 
of the fact, that while relics of the stone- weapon people remain in 
Europe, stone weapons also occur in the graves along with those of 

65. Squier, Anc. Mon, p. 186, and chap. xix. 

B 2 



20 



bronze. Thus we are not compelled to attribute stone weapons and 
bronze weapons to one and the same people ; although it may be ad- 
mitted that, in consequence of the greater value of bronze in Europe, 
the poorer individuals of the bronze -weapon people may have had 
recourse to stone implements, the use of which they may have adopted 
from the Aborigines. 

To complete the proof of the foreign origin of the American 
antiquities, it would be necessary to show that they cannot be 
ascribed to any primitive American people. To carry out this proof, 
is for me impossible, in consequence of the utter lack of materials. 
But I may be allowed to say, that they cannot be attributed to the 
savage red men of thepresent day ; because these, as far as I know, 
have not erected or used any such structures ; and they certainly 
stand at a lower point in the social scale than the builders of the 
ancient earth- works, if we deduct the results of modern European 
culture. 



Observations on the Memoir of Dr. Zestermann, relating to the Colo- 
nizatian of America in Pre-Historic Times. By E. G. Sqtjier. 

The hypothesis of the Discovery of America by adventurers from 
the North of Europe, prior to the epoch of Columbus, has found 
many and able supporters among the learned men of both the Old 
and New Worlds; and it has now come to be generally admitted that 
the Northmen, subsequent to the discovery and partial colonization of 
Greenland in the Xth Century, penetrated to the American continent 
somewhere upon the coast of Labrador. The evidence upon this 
point, drawn from Sagas which have all the simplicity and directness 
of truth, seem conclusive, and probably will not be called in question. 
But it has been claimed further, that these adventurers coasted along 
the Continent as far South as Rhode Island and Narragansett Bav, 
and actually made temporary establishments, and left traces of their 
occupancy there. This claim, however, is not so well supported. It 
rests upon casual expressions, of doubtful meaning, contained in the 
Sagas, and upon a few rude monuments which are clearly referable 
to other eras and origins. The evidence which has been put forward 
in support of this claim, by the Antiquaries of Copenhagen, it seems 
to me is incapable of supporting a critical analysis ; and the stress 
which has been laid upon it has contributed to weaken, rather than 
to sustain, the original proposition. 

The Dighton Rock has its almost exact counterparts in various 
parts of our country, which are well known to be of Indian origin : 
the Fall River Skeleton, in its mode of burial, cranial characteristics, 
and in the ornaments found with it, is clearly that of an Indian; and 



21 



the u Old Tower at Newport, it is now demonstrable, has an anti- 
quity of not more than two hundred years. 

The claim, or rather hypothesis, which is submitted in the paper 
just read, varies materially from that to which I have alluded; and 
although not new, is more ingeniously supported by Dr. Zestermann 
than it has been by any of its previous advocates; and as it is put 
forward in an inquiring spirit, suggestively and not dogmatically, 
and with an evident desire to arrive at the truth, it is entitled to the 
most respectful consideration. It is substantially this : that in remote, 
ante-Columbian times, the American Coutinent was not only dis- 
covered, but widely occupied by people from the North of Europe ; 
which conclusion is supposed to be sustained — First, by a general 
resemblance in the primitive monuments both of Northern Europe 
and Northern America — Secondly, by the existence of vague traditions 
among the nations of the North of Europe, of a migration or coloniza- 
tion far to the westward; and, Third — By the prevalence among the 
semi-civilized nations of America of the tradition of an arrival among 
them, in remote times, of extraordinary personages of mysterious 
origin, who were their instructors in religion and the arts. 

The evidence drawn from the monuments is that which is chiefly 
relied upon by Dr. Zestermann, and is entitled to the first and fullest 
consideration. That a wonderful resemblance exists among the early 
monuments of all primitive nations, is a fact which early impresses 
itself upon the mind of every person who attempts their investiga- 
tion. — Hence it has been hastily inferred that, because certain monu- 
ments and aboriginal relics of the United States, such as entrenched 
hills, tumuli, and instruments and ornaments of stone and copper, 
sustain analogies, in some instances almost amounting to identities, 
with those occurring in the British Islands, in the North of Europe, 
and on the Steppes of Russia, that relations must necessarily have 
existed between the builders, or that they had a common origin. 
These resemblances are, nevertheless, the inevitable results of similar 
conditions ; and the ancient Celts and Scythians, the American 
Indians, and the natives of Australia, built their hill forts, and fa- 
shioned their flint arrow-points and stone axes, in like manner, be- 
cause they thus accomplished common objects in the simplest and 
most obvious mode. Human development must always be, if not in 
precisely the same channels, in the same direction, and must pass 
through the same stages. — We cannot be surprised, therefore, that 
the earlier (as in fact the later) monuments of every people, exhibit 
resemblances more or less striking. What is thus true physically, or 
rather monumentally, is not less so in respect to intellectual and moral 
development. And it is not to be denied, that the want of a suffi- 
cient allowance for natural and inevitable coincidences, resulting from 
these causes, has led to many errors in tracing the origins and affini- 
ties of nations. 



22 



This is admitted by Dr. Zesterinann, who, however, contends that 
there are specific resemblances, not to say identities, between the 
primitive monuments of the North of Europe, and of the United 
States, sufficiently numerous and complete to warrant the conclusion 
that they were built by people of the same stock, who, previous to 
their separation, had acquired common practices, in respect not only 
to religion but to their modes of defence and burial. 

The belief in a Supreme Power and in a future existence, seems to 
be intuitive and inherent in the human mind. At any event, it is 
found to exist, in a clear or obscure form, amongst all peoples. The 
alleged exceptions among certain debased African tribes are not yet 
to be received as facts. A certain degree of affection for the living, 
and consequent regard for the dead, are equally common to humanity, 
and are shared, to a degree, by the higher orders of the brute 
creation. This universal belief in a future existence, and regard or 
reverence for the dead, are competent to explain the common features 
which are exhibited in the early burial rites and burial monuments of 
all nations. The primitive man accomplishes his purposes in the 
simplest mode ; and the simplest and most durable method of pre- 
serving the memory of the departed, is by raising a mound of earth 
or a heap of stones above his remains. Accordingly, sve find 
instances of this mode of interment in almost all countries of the 
globe. The development of this rude monument, in after ages, is to 
be seen in the pyramids, which may, not unphilosophically, be re- 
garded as perfected tumuh. The enclosure of the corpse in a cist, or 
chamber of wood or stone, to protect it from the rude contact of the 
materials of which the monument might be composed, is a step which 
the same feeling that led to the erection of the monument itself 
would naturally dictate. The deposition of articles of use and ornament 
with the dead, originated in the common primitive belief that they 
would be required by their owner in his future existence. 

To the same ideas may be traced the origin of the immolations and 
sacrifices made at the tombs or on the pyres of the dead ; the wife 
and the faithful servant sought to accompany their lord in his future 
fife ; and a numerous retinue was slain at the tomb of the Scythian 
King and the Peruvian Inca, that they might appear in a future 
state with a dignity and pomp proportioned to their earthly great- 
ness. The Mexicans killed the tecliichi at the grave of the dead, that 
his soul might have a companion in its journey along the dreary, 
terror-infested pathway, which, according to their superstitions, 
intervened between the earth and the " blessed mansions of the sun." 
So, too, w r as the faithful dog of the Indian hunter placed beside him 
in the grave, that, in the blissful " hunting grounds of the West," he 
might "bear him company." The warlike Scandinavian had his 
horse sacrificed on his funeral pyre, and his weapons buried with 
him ; so that, full-armed and mounted, he might, with becoming 



23 



state, approach the halls of Odin. In the almost universal belief that 
the soul of the dead, for a longer or shorter period, lingered around 
the ashes from which it was separated, we may discover the reason 
why food and offerings were deposited at the grave ; why it was 
carefully preserved, and why, at stated intervals, the surviving 
relatives of the deceased decked it with flowers and performed games 
around it. In some of these ceremonies, it was believed the departed 
spirit silently participated, and with all it was supposed to be pleased 
and gratified. 

Upon general principles, therefore, so far as Dr. Zestermann's 
hypothesis depends upon the fact of the existence of burial mounds 
in the United States, and that they display common features with 
those of the North of Europe, it is not well sustained. 

I may observe here, that Dr. Zestermann has fallen into an error 
in supposing that the mounds which, in my various publications on 
these subjects, I have classified as " Sacrificial or Altar Mounds," are 
of sepulchral origin. It doubtless is true that mounds possessing 
features somewhat similar to these are found in Europe, which were 
devoted to burials by fire. But the fact that the burned basins or 
platforms, in the western mounds, seldom contain human remains 
of any kind, but, instead of these, deposits of articles of use or orna- 
ment, such as we know were often surrendered as offerings by the 
American aborigines, weighs conclusively against the hypothesis that 
they were places of sepulture. The further circumstance, that many 
of them exhibit unequivocal evidences of having been used for long 
periods, and as having been several times recast or moulded, also 
tends to the same conclusion. I have made this variety of mounds 
the subject of a special note (Note J to Chapter iv.) in my recently 
published work on "The Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the 
the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America," to which I 
would respectfully refer those who seek for further information 
upon this point. 

The resemblances which Dr. Zestermann has pointed out in the 
relics of art found in the mounds of Europe and America, it seems to 
me, fall within the same category with the general features of 
resemblance in the structures themselves. The fact that the compo- 
sition of the articles of pottery found in both hemispheres is similar, 
is also of easy explanation. The mixture of sand, mica, or pulve- 
rized quartz with clay is indispensable to prevent shrinkage, and to 
enable the vessel to withstand the action of fire. A very few 
experiments on the part of men as widely separated as the poles, 
would lead them both to hit upon this expedient for the attainment 
of a necessary purpose. 

The manufacture of pottery is the simplest of arts, and its practice 
in different localities affords no evidence whatever of derivative 
character. It would naturally be suggested by the impressions made 



24 



in the moist clay or soil by the hands or feet, and would first be 
practiced where the proper materials most abound, as in the valleys 
of great rivers. This suggestion is corroborated by our finding the 
earliest fictile establishments in the neighbourhood of rivers more or 
less subject to periodical inundations ; the Babylonians, the Egyp- 
tians, and Etrurians, became potters from their vicinity to the 
Euphrates, the Nile, and the rivers of Northern Italy. In their 
shape, the vessels of the piimitive manufacturer would be most apt 
to take the form of the natural models he might observe about him. 
The type of the earliest and rudest productions was the shell of a nut 
or the rind of some of the pumpkin or calabash tribe ; and this to 
such an extent, that those acquainted with the vegetable productions 
of different countries, are often able, at a glance, to identify their 
productions in pottery. "Those who have examined the collection 
in the Museum of Sevres," says an intelligent observer, "will 
perceive that the distinctive characters of Asia, Africa, and America, 
are marked on the potteries of their less civilized inhabitants." It 
is under this view that a careful attention to the fictile arts of various 
nations may, to a certain extent, be made to contribute to archaeologi- 
cal and ethnological results ; for a migratory or colonizing people 
would be apt to carry with them from one place to another, the 
models which, from the suggestions of nature or from necessity, they 
had before fixed upon. 

The second type which is to be observed in the early potteries, and 
one which marks considerable progress, is the female bust, with 
sometimes an attempt to preserve its character as symbolic of fecundity 
and abundance. This graceful type was carried to a voluptuous excess 
by the Greeks. Other subordinate types of form, suggested by eggs, 
shells, etc., might be noticed. Sufficient has been said, however, to 
enforce the remark made at the commencement of this paragraph, and 
to show how unsafe would be the attempt to deduce dependence or 
connections, upon the basis of simple coincidence in the potteries of 
detached nations, unless under the conditions which I have 
indicated . 

The stone discs, with a hole in the centre, to which Dr. Zestermann 
refers, are not ' tf enigmatical." The purposes for which they were 
made are well known, and arc explained in And. Mon., note to page 
223. They were often fashioned by the modern Indians, and used 
in a game called Chung-he. 

Stone axes and flint knives, and arrow and spear heads are to be 
found in all parts of the globe ; I have seen specimens from Scandi- 
liavia, Siberia, and Japan ; Irom the plains of Marathon, Mount 
Sinai, Egypt, Southern Africa, and Asia ; the Islands of the Pacific, 
and from all parts of North and South America, un distinguishable 
from each other in shape, and differing but slightly in materials, — 
for certain stones, being better adapted to specific uses than others, 



25 



would naturally be everywhere selected for them. The discovery of 
pipes in the barrows of Holstein is certainly a curious fact, but unim- 
portant, unless it is shown that the practice of smoking was unknown 
in ancient times in Europe. And even if it is assumed that the 
practice was derivative, (and I see no reason why it should be so 
regarded), would it not be more rational and philosophical to derive 
it from Asia, whence many of the northern families migrated, and 
where the practice existed from the earliest periods? The trans- 
mission of customs and of arts in the old world, as also the course of 
migration, has always been from East to West. But admitting that 
such a supposition, instead of being highly probable, is impossible, 
and that it is not to be supposed that the people of the North of 
Europe had, of themselves, hit upon the practice of smoking, even 
then the single fact of the finding of pipes in Holstein will not, on 
any principle of evidence, justify the hypothesis of a connection and 
correspondence between the nations of the Old and New Worlds. 
A concurrence of facts, of different kinds and striking character, is 
necessary to give so much as plausibility to conclusions of this gravity 
and importance. 

But there are some other considerations to be regarded in connec- 
tion with these supposed pipes. Are they in fact pipes ? May they 
not be instruments, resembling pipes in shape, but devoted to other 
and forgotten uses ? May they not be of recent date ? In our own 
mounds we frequently find articles of European origin which have 
been buried there by the later Indian tribes. {See And. Mon. y pp. 
146, 147, 149, and Monuments of New York, p. 118). But if ob- 
tained from America, if the wide intercourse between Europe and 
America, claimed by Dr. Z. existed, how comes it that these articles 
are found in a single locality, and not generally in the barrows of 
Holstein and Germany ? Dr. Z. has hypothetically answered this 
question by assuming that they were introduced by strangers ; but 
then the extensive "mutual intercourse" between the two worlds, 
which his primary hypothesis involves, and which he directly claims, 
is invalidated by the rarity of these remains ; which, it should be 
remarked are the only ones adduced to show that America had in- 
tercourse with, or re-acted on Europe. 

There is one variety of ancient earth-works in the United States 
which have their almost exact counterparts throughout the world, 
and which cannot be taken, in archaeological speculations, as indi- 
cating the slightest degree of relationship among their builders. — 
These are fortified hills or headlands, or positions possessing natural 
capabilities of defence, improved by art. In respect to these it is 
only necessary to observe, that the natural instincts of man without 
calling his reason into requisition, would, in case of necessity, lead 
him to select and occupy them for purposes of protection. They 
must, therefore, everywhere sustain a certain likeness, and will differ 
onl y in the degree of skill displayed by their builders. 



26 



They are, therefore, to be found in North and South America, in 
the Pacific Islands, in Australia, and even in Africa. {Cook's 
Second Voyage-, Ellis s Polynesian Res. vol. i, p. 313; Pollock's 
New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 26 ; Laings Polynesian Nations, p. 108 ; 
Southey's History of Brazil, vol. ii., pp. 162, 189 ; Charlevoix's 
Paraguay, vol. i., p. 156 ; Davis s History of Barbadoes, p. 325, 
etc. etc). 

There is, however, another class of structures, which have a higher 
archaeological value ; I allude to those which I have, in my works on 
our ancient monuments, denominated u Sacred Enclosures." 
None can be more ready than myself to admit the general corres- 
pondence which exists between these and many of the primitive 
monuments of the British Islands and the North of Europe. I 
have elsewhere (Appendix to " Aboriginal Monuments of New 
York ") pointed out, in detail, the features common to both, and 
attempted an explanation of the principles upon which they were 
probably constructed. The hypothesis which I have there advanced, 
and which is deduced from the consideration of a large number of 
facts, is that the forms of all primitive sacred structures were more or 
less determined by the religious ideas and conceptions of their 
builders ; in other words, that they were symbolical, not only as 
wholes, but in their parts, and in the relations of those parts to each 
other. The undeniable resemblances which they sustain to each 
other, in various parts of the world, are not, therefore, the result of 
contact or relationship, but of a certain uniformity in man's primi- 
tive or elementary beliefs and conceptions, of which, in one form, 
they may be regarded as expressions or indices ; and which beliefs 
and conceptions are themselves the result of a uniformity in the 
mental and moral constitutions of men, subjected to like influences, 
and surrounded by the suggestive phenomena of nature, which are 
everywhere very nearly the same. What has been very vaguely 
termed " Sun Worship," or what might better be called the worship 
of the Powers of Nature, seems to have been the earliest and most 
widely diffused form of human superstition. In this system, the 
Sun, as the emblem of the active and most efficient Principle or 
Power of Nature, has the first place, and is itself symbolized by the 
the circle. The primitive temples dedicated to this luminary, or to 
the power which was supposed to dwell in it, the active, vivifying 
energy of Nature, were, therefore, circular. The early and generally 
received doctrine that the gods made temples and sacred structures 
their places of constant abode, and in some instances actually ani- 
mated their shrines, it will readily be understood would naturally 
suggest and perpetuate certain forms in those structures as best be- 
fitting the deity to whom they were dedicated, and most likely to 
secure his literal presence. This idea seems to be referred to by 
Sallust, in his treatise on the Gods and the "World. He says that 
" A certain habitude and fitness is all that is necessary in order to 



27 



receive the beneficent communications of the Gods : and as all 
habitude is produced through imitation and similitude, therefore 
temples imitate the heavens, and altars the earth/' etc. We are as- 
sured by Pliny that the Pantheon was symbolical in form ; and both 
Plutarch and Ovid concur in representing the temple of Vesta, 
originally built by Numa, on the banks of the Tiber, as also sym- 
bolical. " The figure of* the temple, in almost every religion," says 
a learned and pious author, ' ( is the hierogram of its God. The 
hierogram of the Sun is always a circle; the temples of the Sun are 
circular ; the Ophites worshipped a serpent deity, and their temples 
assumed the form of a serpent ; and, to come home to our own times 
and feelings, the Christian conforms to the same idea, when he builds 
his temples in the form of a cross — the cross being at once the 
symbol of his creed and the hierogram of his God." (Rev. J. B. 
Deane, British Archceologia, vol. xxv., p. 191.) " On every review," 
observes another author, "and from every direction accumulated 
proofs arise, how much more extensively than is generally supposed, 
the designs of the ancients in architecture were affected by their 
speculations in astronomy, and their mythological reveries." 
(Maurice, Ind. Antq., vol. iii., p. 199.) And it is the fact that the 
religious conceptions, the philosophy and physical speculations of the 
ancients, exerted a controlling influence upon the forms and con- 
struction of their sacred edifices, which invests these monuments 
with interest, not only as works of art, but as illustrations of man's 
primitive belief, his notions of cosmogony, and his philosophy of 
the Earth and Heavens. 

The objects of the Drudical worship were identical with those of 
the followers of Baal; it was Sun Worship, or Sabianism, under one 
of its simplest and commonest forms ; and we have abundant direct 
evidence that the circular, as well as the serpentine and other pre- 
dominant forms of the primitive temples of Europe were symbolical. 
Finding in our own country similar structures, obviously built in 
accordance with a general plan, founded upon certain definite prin- 
ciples, analogy would justify us in the inference that their builders 
were devoted to a similar religion. And when we inquire further, 
and find that Sun Worship greatly predominated, if, indeed, it was 
not of universal prevalence throughout the continent, the inference 
so well sustained by analogy, rises into the dignity of a well-supported 
hypothesis. This worship existed from Labrador to Patagonia, and 
was attended by the same rites and illustrated by the same symbols, 
which were common to it in the Old World. There is no reason for 
supposing that this form of worship, or this system of Natural Reli- 
gion, is derivative; for, as I have said, it seems to have been nearly 
universal, antedating all history and tradition, and going back, pro- 
bably, of all monumental records. 1 do not, therefore, attach much 
importance to the coincidences pointed out by Dr. Zestermann and 



28 



others, between this large and interesting class of structures in the 
United States and similar structures in the North of Europe, as 
evidences of connections, recent or remote, between the two con- 
tinents. 

But if convinced that these coincidences were not to be accounted 
for on the natural principles which I have so briefly indicated, still I 
should not look to Europe for their explanation. The monuments of 
the United States are identical in their elements of construction with 
those of Mexico and Central America, and all of these sustain a closer 
relationship to those of India, than to those of any other quarter of 
the globe. The terraced pyramidal structures of America, surmounted 
by chapels and ornamented with significant sculptures were, it is 
capable of demonstration, built not only in conformity with the same 
general principles with those of India, but the detailed and specific 
ideas which they illustrate were, in many instances, the same. The 
Buddhist Temples of Southern India have almost their exact counter- 
parts in Central America and Mexico. I have made their relation- 
ship a subject of extended remark in the work entitled " The Serpent 
Symbol and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles in America." 

I am, therefore, of the decided opinion that the proposition ad- 
vanced by Dr. Zestermann derives no support from the monuments 
of America. Besides, the American race, above all others in the 
world, seems most averse to everything like assimilation with other 
races. It is, we may say 3 almost entirely unimpressible. If the 
Indians constructed these monuments, this admitted fact is prima facie 
evidence against the hypothesis which ascribes not only the introduc- 
tion of the practice of erecting them, but of the ideas which they 
illustrate, to a foreign people. Europe has poured its populations in 
an unbroken flood for three centuries on America, yet the Indian is 
little changed. An emigration sufficiently large to have moulded this 
obstinate race, in the earlier and ruder ages of Northern Europe, is a 
hypothesis too startling to be admitted ; but not more so than that 
which involves a migration sufficiently great to have diffused itself 
over the continent, and to have erected in the Mississippi Valley alone 
a series of monuments quadrupling in number and magnitude all the 
primitive monuments of Europe. But this latter hypothesis is in- 
validated by the established fact that the Indians of Mexico and 
Central America, at the time of the Discovery, built precisely such 
structures as, under this supposition, must be referred to an utterly 
extinct, exotic people. 

Dr. Zestermann quotes the skull which I obtained from a mound 
in Ohio (and which is figured in plates xlii. and xliii. of the 
" Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,") as possessing 
Caucasian characteristics. He, however, confounds it with another 
obtained from the Grave Creek Mound in Virginia, and figured in 
Dr. Morton's " Crania Americana." Dr. Zestermann is mistaken in 



29 



supposing that a " stumpy nose " is a characteristic feature of the 
American race. The very reverse is the fact : no people have more 
salient noses than our Indians. The particular skull in question, so 
far from betraying a Caucasian origin, is regarded by Dr. Morton and 
other craniological investigators as nearly a perfect type of the Ame- 
rican head. Upon this point I cannot do better than quote a passage 
from a letter from Dr. Morton, to whom I sent this skull. " Nothing 
of the kind," he observes, " can be more entirely characteristic than 
this relic, and you may distribute casts of it as a -perfect type of the 
race to which it belongs; that race which, in all its numberless 
Idealities, conforms with more or less precision, and for the most part 
with amazing exactness, in its cranial proportions, to the skull you 
have now discovered. What are the characteristics of the aboriginal 
American skull? Are they not, as 1 have so often pointed out, the 
vertical occiput, the prominent vertex, the great inter -parietal 
diameter, the inequilateral form, the large facial bones, the long and 
salient nose, the 'prominent maxilla ? Look into the Crania Americana, 
and observe the Peruvian heads there figured, and how admirably 
they correspond with this skull, which has, however, a less receding 
forehead than usual. Every new observation on this subject goes to 
confirm my previous conclusions, that our Indian populations, of 
all epochs, have belonged to a single homogeneous race. There have 
no doubt been colonial or accidental mixtures in California and else- 
where, but they have been too inconsiderable to effect any other than 
very local variations from the primitive type. The type, I grant, 
has its varieties ; but these may be referred, in a great measure, to a 
plurality of centres or origins, all of which, however, point to that 
primitive organization of which you have now so fine an example." 

In respect to the sculptures of the human head and the masks of 
the human face obtained from the mounds, little need be said, except 
that the deductions from them differ as widely as the preconceived 
notions of investigators. Some have pronounced them "thoroughly 
Indian," others eminently " Caucasian." Upon my own mind they 
have produced no decided impression one way or the other. From 
the circumstance that the sculptures of animals found with them are 
surprisingly accurate, we are justified in assuming that the sculptures 
of the human head are equally faithful representations of the pre- 
dominant features of the people who made them. 

The traditions of Ari Marsson, like those relating to the ancient 
Atlantis, are far too vague to enter as elements into any philoso- 
phical discussion of the question of the Colonization of America from 
the East. 

The traditionary Quetzalcoatl of Mexico is referred to by Dr. 
Zestermann, as probably a personage of Caucasian stock, who by 
some means penetrated to Mexico, and subsequently left it for 
another land. He was represented as bearded and of a fair com- 



30 



plexion, and these are the only features by which he is identified as 
of another race. Now it should be observed, that all the gods and 
demi-gods of Mexico were individualized by certain characteristics of 
form and feature. The god and goddess of water were of a light 
blue ; the goddess of flowers of a fair and rosy complexion ; the 
supreme god Tezcatlipoca was often painted black. But what is 
meant by " fair complexion" in the Spanish accounts of Quetzalcoatl, 
written by men who were bent on identifying him with St. Thomas, 
and who even found etymological proof in his name, that he was 
the same with the apostle, " whose surname was Didymus ?" 
Against these traditional accounts, correct enough in their general 
outlines, but received at second-hand and often interpolated in their 
details, we may place the irrefragible evidence of the paintings, in 
which Quetzalcoatl is neither represented as bearded nor of a fair 
complexion. On the contrary, we are expressly assured by Sahagun, 
who is the best authority in matters of this kind, that his face was 
painted dark. "La cara tenia tenida de negro," are the precise 
words of this authority. 

But admitting the full force of the tradition, I fail to perceive that 
it has any real bearing upon the hypothesis advanced by Dr. Zester- 
mann. Quetzalcoatl is the Mexican name for that intermediate 
great teacher and demi-god, which may be traced in every primitive 
mythology, as I think I have fully shown in Chapter vii. of my work 
on Serpent Worship. He is an incarnation of the principal God of 
the Mexican Pantheon, Son of the Sun, by a virgin mother, and in 
his origin, character, and attributes, coincides with Buddha, Codom, 
Fohi, Schaka, Zoroaster, Osiris, Taut, Hermes, and Odin, in the old 
world, and with Bochica, Votan, Cuculcan, Manco Capac, Payzume, 
Wasi, Manabozho, etc., etc., in the new. I conceive him to be 
a strictly mythological character ; a being, half human, half divine, 
such as primitive nations in their religious speculations and refine- 
ments have thought necessary to place intermediately between man 
and divinity — as their intercessors near the latter, the medium of the 
transmission of his will, and the representative of his goodness, 
wisdom, and power. Knowledge in religion, government, agricul- 
ture, and the arts, in the primitive systems, was supposed to proceed 
from above, through this chosen channel. Thus, Quetzalcoatl, like 
Bochica, established religion and laws, and taught ignorant and help- 
less men agriculture and the useful arts. His mission fulfilled, he 
disappeared mysteriously, with a promise that he would one clay 
return with new gifts, to introduce a new era, when " peace and 
good will " should prevail, and the world enter upon a new and 
millenial age. Quetzalcoatl belongs to the mythic realm ; he is an 
impersonation of an idea, not a historical character, and cannot be 
admitted as such in these investigations, under that or any other of 
his numerous names. 



31 



It appears to me that if we are to attach any importance to the 
traditions of strangers, singularly dressed, and of extraordinary 
aspect, who penetrated into Mexico, Central America, or Peru, we 
may look rather to Asia, to China, or India, for the place of their 
origin, than to Northern Europe. So far as we may infer the 
doctrines of these traditional teachers, from the traces of them which 
remain to us, they were essentially those of Buddhism ; and if so 
grave a conclusion as a migration to America, however small, may 
be based upon traditions or vague ancient records, it is better sup- 
ported by the Chinese accounts of the distant country of Fu-Sang, 
than by any others with which I am acquainted. These accounts 
refer to great nations, already possessing civil and religious organiza- 
tions, and, if admitted to their fullest extent, leave the question of 
the origin of the American race, of American monuments, and of 
American civilization unaffected. 

If I have attached their true value to the evidences submitted by 
Dr. Zestermann, in support of his proposition, it cannot be enter- 
tained; and consequently, the conjectural suggestions as to how and 
when the hypothetical migration took place need not occupy our 
attention. 

Our learned correspondent, however, very justly observes, in the 
concluding paragraph of his memoir, that his evidence is fatally in- 
complete, unless it is shown that the American Monuments cannot 
be ascribed to any American people. To show that a portion, if not 
all of thenij are of aboriginal American origin, it appears to me, is 
not a difficult undertaking. I have said elsewhere that the principles 
of construction in the earth-works of the United States, are the same 
with those of the monuments of Mexico and Central America ; that 
the latter are, in fact, the more developed types of the former. A 
comparison of the structures at Cahokia, Illinois, at Marietta, Ohio, 
at Williams's Bayou, in Mississippi, in Madison Parish, Lousiana, 
and at numerous other places in the Mississippi Valley, with the 
plans of those of Yucatan, presented by Messrs. Stephens and Ca- 
therwood, and of Mexico by Du Paix, is alone necessary to the 
substantiation of this remark. The ability to construct the latter 
involves the ability to erect the former; and we have direct evi- 
dence that the people of Yucatan, equally with those of Mexico, 
built such structures, at the period of the Conquest. The history of 
the building of the great Temple of Mexico, by the first Monte- 
zuma, is not only preserved traditionally, but is recorded in the 
paintings. The construction of the great symbolical temple of nine 
stages, by Nezahualcoyotl, King of Tezcuco, also falls within what 
may be called the historical period. The paintings record the con- 
structions of sacred edifices in the course of the migrations to which 
they refer; and their names and the places where their ruins exist, 
may even now be ascertained without difficulty. The building of 



32 



Uxinal and Mayapan are events referred to with great exactness 
in the traditions of Yucatan; and the fact that many of the struc- 
tures of that country are of comparatively recent origin is sufficiently 
evident from their investigation, in themselves, apart from traditional 
or historical aids. The constructions of mounds occasionally by 
our Northern savage Indian tribes, often by the partially civilized 
Floridians, and generally by the Peruvians and Auracanians, is 
sufficiently shown by the facts which I have brought together in the 
Appendix to my work upon the Aboriginal Monuments of New 
York. I have there also shown that a portion of the earth- works 
in Northern Ohio and New York, which, misled by erroneous repre- 
sentations as to their true character, I had classified (in the work to 
which Dr. Zestermaun so often refers) as of the same system with 
those of the Mississippi Valley, are of a different origin and later 
date, and were actually built by the tribes found in occupation of 
the country at the time of the discovery by Europeans in the 15th 
century. 

The fatal deficiency, the effect of which Dr. Zestermann so well 
comprehends, does therefore exist. A portion certainly, and pro- 
bably all, of the monuments of America, were constructed by nations 
belonging to the great American family — that race which, under all 
of its aspects, in language, religion, and in physical traits, betrays 
conclusive evidences of unity, and radical separation from all the 
other great families of men. How far casual and partial migrations 
or intermixtures from abroad have introduced new elements into the 
religions, new features into the civil and social organizations, new 
forms into the monuments, or new traits into the physical constitu 
tion of this race, it is of course, difficult, if not impossible, to say; 
may, nevertheless, be claimed, that if such migrations and intermix 
tures have occurred ,they have been without any extended or decided 
not to say without any perceptible, effect. 



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